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people ; that itie didrlbution of tKem, as to allowing or de- 

 nying it, dcpciulcJ on the difcrction of their fiipeinors ; and 

 tliiit,"conrKli.ri''g the malignity of the time, an EiiKhih tiaiif 

 lotion of the Bible would rather oc.-afion the continuance, or 

 increafe of errors, than any benefit to their fouls. However, 

 the procliniation announced the king's inte:;tion, if the pre- 

 fent trat-.flatioii were abandoned, at a proper feafon, to provide 

 that the Holy Scriptures Oiould be by great, learned, and 

 catholic pcrfons, tranflated into the Englidi tongue, if it 

 (liould then fecm convenient. In the mean time, Tiiidal was 

 bafily employed in trandating from the Hebrew into the 

 Englidi the five books of Mofes, in which he wa'? a.Tiiled by 

 Miles Coverdale. But hij papers being loll by fiiipwreck in 

 his voyage to Hamburgh, where iie defigncd to print it, a 

 delay occurred, and it was not put to prefs till the year 1530. 

 It is a fmall 8vo. printed at different preffes, and with differ- 

 ent types. In the prcf<ice he complained, that there was not 

 fo much as one i in his New Teftament, if it lacked a tittle 

 over its luad, bnt it had been noted, and numbered to the 

 i 1-norant people for an herefy, who were made to believe, that 

 there were many thoufand licrelies in it, and that it was fo 

 faulty as to be incapable of amendment or corredion. In 

 this year he pubhihed an aiifwer to fir Thomas More's dia- 

 logue, containing his reafon for the changes which he had 

 introilueed into his trandation. The three former editions of 

 TinJiil's Englilh New Teilament being all fold off, the 

 Dutch baokfcllers printed a fourfh in this year, in a fmaller 

 volume and letter. In 1531, Tindal puhlillied an Enghlli 

 Ycrfion of the prophet Jonah, with a prologue, full of invtc- 

 tive againil the church of Rome. Strype fuppofes that be- 

 fore his death he finiflicd all the Bible but the Apocrypha, 

 which was tranfl^ted by Rogers ; but it fcems more probable 

 that he trandated only the hiftorical parts. In 1534, was 

 publirtied a fourth Dutch edition, or the fifth in all, of Tiu- 

 dal's New Teilament, in i2mo. In this fame year, Tindal 

 printed his own edition of the New Teilament in Englifh, 

 which he had diligently revifed and correfted, ; to which is 

 prefixed a prologue ; and at the end are the pilljlsof the Old 

 Teilament, clofing with the following advertifement, " Im- 

 printed at Antwerp, by Marten Emperour, anno M.D. 

 XXXIV." Another edition was publifiied this year, in 

 l6to. and printed in a Gtrman letter. Hall fays, in his 

 Chronicle, printed during the reign of Henry VIII. by 

 Richard Grafton, the benefaftor and friend of Tindal ; 

 " William Tindal tranflated the New Teftament, and firft 

 put it into print ; and he likewife tranflated the five books of 

 Mofes, Jolhua, Jndicum, Ruth, the books of Kings, and 

 books of Paralipomenon, Nthemiah, and the firll of Efdras, 

 and the prophet Jonas ; and no more of the Holy Scrip- 

 tures." Upon his return to Antwerp, in 1531, king Henry 

 VIII. and his council, contrived means to have him feized 

 and imprifoncd. ATter long CjaUnement he was condemned 

 to death by the emperor's decree in an alTembly at Augf- 

 burgh ; and in 1536, he was llrangltd at Vdlefort, near 

 Brulftls, the place of his imprifonment, after which his body 

 was reduced to alhes. He expired, praying repeatedly and 

 carneitly, " Lord, open the king of England's eyes." 

 Several editions of liis Teilament were printed in the year of 

 his death. Tindal had little or no Ikill in the Hebrew, and 

 therefore he probably tranflated the Old Teilament from the 

 Latin. The knowledge of languages was in its infancy ; nor 

 was our Englifh tongue arrived at that degree of improve- 

 ment, which it has fince attained ; it is not, therefore, furprif- 

 ing, that there fliould be many faults in this tranflation which 

 reed amendment. This, indeed, was a tallv, not for a fintjle 

 perfon, but requiring the concurrence of many, in circum- 

 ilanccs much more favourable for the execiition of it than 



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thofc of an exile. Neverthelcfs, although this tranflation is 

 far from being perfeft, few firll tranflations, fays Dr. Geddes 

 (Profpeftus, p. 88.), will l.e found preferable to it. It is 

 allonilhing, fays this writer, hcnv httle obfolele the language 

 of it i?, even at this day ; and m point of perfpieuity, and 

 noble fimplicity, propriety of ii'iom, and purity of llyle, no 

 Engllfli vcrfion has yet furpalfed it. 



Bible, CovcrdaL's. In 153 J the whole Bible, tranflated 

 into Ehglifli, was printed in folio, and dedicated to the 

 king by Miles Coverdale, a man greatly efte:med for piety, 

 knowledge of the fcriptures, and diligent preaching ; on ac- 

 count of which qualities king Edward VI. advanced him to 

 the fee of Exeter. In his dedication and preface, he obferves 

 to this pui-pofe, that, as to the prefect tranflation, it was 

 neither his labour nor his defire to have this work put into 

 his hand ; b\it " when others were moved by the Holy 

 Giioll to undertake the coil of it," he was the more bold to 

 engage in the execution of it. Agreeably, therefore, to de- 

 fire, he ftt forth this " fpecial" tranflation, not in contempt 

 of other men's tranflations, or by way ot reproving them, but 

 humbly and faithfully following his interpreters, and that un- 

 der correftion. Of thefe, he fa'd, he uled five different ores, 

 who had tranflated the fcriptures not only ir.to Latin, but 

 alfo into Dutch. He further declared, that he had neither 

 wrerted nor altered fo m'.;ch as one word for the maintenance 

 of any manner of feft, but had with a clear confcience purely 

 and faithfully tranflated out of the foregoing interpreter?, 

 having only before his eyes the maniftll truth of the fcrip- 

 ture. But becaufe fiich different tranflations, he faw, were 

 apt to offend weak minds, he added, that there came more 

 undtrllaneliug and knowledge of the fcripture by thefc 

 fundry tranflations, than by all the gloffes of fopliillical 

 doftors ; and he therefore defires, that offence might not be 

 taken, becaufe one tranflated " fcribe," and another "law- 

 yer," one " repentance," and another " penance," or 

 " amendment." This is the firll Engliifi Bible allowed by 

 royal authority; a'd alfo th.e firil tranflation of the whole 

 Bible printed in our language. It was called a " fpecial" 

 tranflation, becaufe it was different from the former Englifh 

 tranflations ; as Lewis has fhewn ( Hill. Eng. Tranfl. p. 98.) 

 by comparing it with Tindal's . It is divided into fix tomes, 

 adorned with wooden cuts, and furnifhed with fcripture re- 

 ferences in the margin. The lall page has thefe words : 

 " Prynted in the yeare of our Lorde M.D. XXXV. and 

 fynillied the fourth day of Ocrtober." Of this Bible there 

 was another edition in a large 4to. 1550, which was re-pnb- 

 lillied, with a new title, 1553 ; and thefe, according to Lewi?, 

 were all the editions of it. Coverdale, in this edition of the 

 Englifh Bible, prefixed to every book the contents of the 

 feveral chapters, and not to the particular chapters, which 

 was afterwards the cafe ; and he likewife omitted all Tin- 

 dal's prologues and notes. Soon after this Bible was 

 finilhed, in 1536, lord Cromwell, keeper of the privy-feal, 

 and the king's vicar-gencral and vicegerent in ecclefiaflical 

 matters, publiflied injunaions to the clergy by the king's 

 authority, the feventh of which was, that every parfon, 

 or proprietary of any parilli church within this realm, Ihould, 

 before the ill of Augull, provide a book of the whole 

 Bible, both in Latin and in Englifli, and lay it in the 

 choir, for every man that would, to look and read therein ; 

 and fliould difcourage no man from reading any part of 

 the Bible either in Latin or Enghfli, but rather comfort, 

 exhort, and admonifli every man, to read it, as the very 

 word of God, and the fpiritual food of a man's foul, 

 &c. 



Bible, Mattheiue's, or Mattiews's. In 1537, another 

 edition of the EngUih Bible was printed by Grafton and 



\Vhit> 



